Just when we feel we are drowning in information, along comes Big Data to save the day. Big Data refers to a dataset so large it is beyond the capability of a typical database to manage and make use of the information. But a set of advances in hardware and software now allows us to rapidly capture, organize, and make sense of vast oceans of data, enabling us to apply the results to make better business decisions.

Big Data can give us a strategic advantage. For example, investors could see global trends in trading across sectors in near-real time; they could respond much earlier to a downturn in prices in a given sector, avoiding the steep losses incurred by taking later action.

Big Data can also create a richer experience for customers. Bloomberg.com gathers more than 100 data points from every page an individual reader views, processing the data with 15 algorithms to personalize recommendations. Algorithms that understand natural language and rich media and can reason make Big Data technology even more useful in decision making. Novel visualization paradigms, 3D, and gesture interfaces make Big Data understandable and accessible to everyone.

If you’re an active Twitter user, then you know that working within the confines of Twitter’s restrictive character limit can be tough—what’s the best way to cram in a catchy message, a link, and a few important hashtags without exceeding 140 characters?

I know I’ve struggled to write catchy tweets—sometimes I feel proud of my messages, other times, I feel like they just enter the Twitter stream only to be completely ignored. So I set out to get some advice, and turned to our resident expert, Alex Krasne, for her tips.

Alex is a veritable Twitter expert, having used the service for years, both for personal use as well as through @Cisco_Channels. She offered me some advice on how to get the most out of Twitter, and how to tweet effectively to reach your ideal audience.

In addition to her tips, Alex has advice on how to mind your Twitter manners. Watch her video to see what you need to know to maintain and grow, rather than alienate your followers.

So what do you need to know to use Twitter effectively? Here’s what Alex recommends.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks around here and we’ve got a fresh batch of newsfor partners!

In this week’s Partner Update newscast, Andrew finds out that even though an actual cloud can’t stream his music, Cisco’s new Cloud Partner Program offers everything partners need to capitalize on the growth of cloud, which is expected to reach $172 billion by the year 2014.

We also get to hear Andrew’s top video tips, find out why his suit needs to go to the dry cleaners, learn about networking myths, find out how one customer deployed VXI and virtual desktops, and we answer your technical questions.

Watch this week’s Partner Update newscast.

Keep reading for a transcript of what we covered, links to what we shared, and additional information. Read More »

Our expert on this topic is Andrew Phillips, co-anchor of our Partner Update newscasts and our Cisco Channels go-to video guy. Andrew knows his way backward and forward in Final Cut Pro. And, he’s staged and filmed countless videos that we feature here on the Cisco Channels blog and elsewhere.

According to Andrew, nothing can ruin a video more than poor setup. If you invest some time and thought in lighting, staging, and audio, your video will come out so much better than if you just shoot in front of a window without regard to your light source, or if you film outside with loud cars driving by that drown out your audio.

Want to put Andrew’s tricks to use in your videos? Here are his Top 10 Tips for Setting Up the Perfect Video.Read More »

For those of you following Cisco Social, you should have noticed that we started signing our tweets. That funny little character followed by two initials is exactly that- our signature, a way for you to hold us accountable for what we say.

With Social Media covering everything from listening/monitoring, communities, blogs and then upcoming events; it’s impossible for one person to successfully manage this account. We feel that it’s important for followers to be able to use Twitter as a way to have two way conversations. Here at Cisco we’ve assembled a team of contributors to make sure we’re capturing the latest and most exciting news around the clock as well as getting back to you.

Drum roll please…

Making their first appearance as a team, here is the 2011 lineup for Cisco Social– Cisco’s social media focused twitter handle:

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